Rob's Rafale *Finished*

[rob_van_riel]

It was a long and somewhat frustrating day at the office, so I felt a need to do something crazy. While munching on my dinner, I caught a written off Italeri Rafale-M staring at me. Bad idea I suddenly had my crazy thing, and a victim for it. Time to blitz a plane

For starters, the box and it's contents:





Please forgive the absense of a more traditional clock; I just don't have any, so my watch will have to do.

I'm now roughly an hour into the build. I've kept true to my usual MO and scanned every piece of paper prior to tearing into it. I've also painted the interior of the cockpit grey (drying now), over which there will be some quick drybrushing int the very near future. Underwing tanks are assembled, and the forward whellbay has been joined to the lower fuselage half. The transparencies have been hit with Clear.

[rob_van_riel]

Status of 22:30.
Coarse construction, apart from the air intakes, is done. Some of the joins will require filler, sometime after I've installed the air intakes later this evening.
The undercarriage has been painted overall silver with enamel, which will provide a base for detail work with faster acrylics tomorrow. Something similar goes for the ejection seat which has been painted black.



Just a quick peek into the cockpit tub..



There's plenty of room to install the seat and control stick through the open (well, absent) canopy, which is a good thing, as this means I don't have to complete all the cockpit work before sealing the fuselage.

[Arcwelder]

WHOO! I hope all the feedback in your question about Blitzbaus helps! Good luck, mate!

[rob_van_riel]

WHOO! I hope all the feedback in your question about Blitzbaus helps! Good luck, mate!

A spot of devious planning will certainly help. I doubt this one will see any chemical trickery though; those techniques will be developed at leasure, and used 'in anger' much later.
Kit and subject selection hints were followed though; a typical 'boring grey aircraft' with exactly one exterior colour, and a kit that's no great loss in case of failure. Nothing particularly nasty about the kit, by the way. My only real issue with it is the combination of raised panel lines (on a 1994 kit..) and less than perfect fit (causing filler and detail-wrecking sanding). These days it's simply left in the dust by the Hobby Boss, which is just a much more modern kit (although nothing that would be beyond the state of the art in the 90s)
A lot will depend on how much time is left by the time I get the exterior completed and the canopy shut.

[rob_van_riel]

Final shot of the day. Seams on the plane and tanks blobbed over with filler. Sanding will probably remove most of the surface detail, but there's not a whole lot of that to begin with.



Time to go and grab some ZZZs..

[jssel]

This is great Rob. The Rafale' is such a beautiful machine. Great progress.

[Arcwelder]

Looking like a Blitz winner to me... nice work!

[rob_van_riel]

Grrrr...just lost 2 hours battling a Firefox problem (or chasing a ghost, confirmation pending..)

[Old_Tonto]

How is it going Rob?

[rob_van_riel]

The main shape has been sanded, as have the fuel tanks. Next up are all those small bits and pieces on the exterior, followed by some faster filler.
I've done some minor paint work on the interior as well, but nothing that will really show up in pictures. Should have something picture-worthy around noon.

[rob_van_riel]

Construction before painting is almost done. Just some filler for the rails, assembly of the cockpit, and the really fragile outward parts to do. Made a rocket forrest to assist in painting the cargo.



Off for some breakfast now..

[jssel]

Looking very nice Rob. Great progress

[rob_van_riel]

The cockpit is complete, and the canopy was installed immediately after this picture was taken. Almost ready for paint, although I have to leave that for a modest amount of time while the clearfix on the canopy hardens.



And with the hood on, mounted on a caddy:

[Arcwelder]

Looking great. Blimey, you're tearing through it!

[rob_van_riel]

Blimey, you're tearing through it!

Well, it is a blitz Ripping through at the speed of heat is the idea